In 2010, in response to a coalition lawsuit filed in 2007 by Audubon North Carolina, Defenders of Wildlife and the Southern Environmental Law Centerm the National Park Service implemented long overdue safeguards for pedestrians and beach-nesting wildlife on park beaches overrun by off-road vehicles.

With the potential threat of oil coming ashore after the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, Defenders Florida staff and volunteers helped collect fishing line, plastics and other marine debris to protect sea turtles, manatees, birds and other wildlife from ingestion and entanglement.